AUSTRIAN ECONOMICS ADDICT

MATHEMATICAL RISK

Compared to other “pandemics” the number of people dying from the Covid 19 virus doesn’t measure up. Look here: A Visual History Of Pandemics, at weforum.org. And I know this has a ways to go before it is contained.

We know the number of people who have died form the virus, because we can count the bodies. But we do not know, and can not know, the number of people who have, or have had, the virus. We know the listed number of people who have the virus are only the people who have been tested. But we don’t know how many people have, or have had, the virus who have yet to be tested or will never be tested. So the number of infections is much higher than the posted number. The math is just a guess because it looks like this: Known Number of Deaths/Unknown Number of Infections.

Here are the statistics: Coronavirus Update (Live), at worldometers.info.

People over the age of 60 and people who have existing medical conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, respiratory disease, hypertension, and cancer are where a vast majority of the deaths occur. And most of the people with these medical problems are older people. Here is the breakdown: Coronavirus Age, Sex, Existing Medical Conditions, at worldometersinfo. Access your mathematical risk according to these charts?

 

PANIC

The media has pushed this story hard. It doesn’t matter why. But they haven’t panicked everyone. It has been hard for me to find someone who doesn’t think this is a bit over hyped.   Read this article: As Government AuthoritiesUrge Panic Over Coronavirus One Doctor Breaks Rank, at mises.org.

But if you panic enough people on the margin, they can make grocery store shelves look bare. I went to a store to look at what people hoard during a “pandemic”. Here is what I observed. They hoard toilet paper, which I don’t understand at all. Bottled water, which I also don’t understand because the water from their tap is safe. Cleaning products, hand sanitizer, alcohol, pasta, frozen pizzas and cans of soup. Although they don’t buy split pea soup, french onion soup or minestrone. They also don’t buy popping corn or cookies.

But once fifteen to twenty percent of the population is panicked, it seems like everyone is panicked. That’s when the politicians have to step in and “do something”. When politicians see a parade coming down the street they have to get out in front of it so it looks like they are leading.

Our governor in Ohio shut down schools, sporting events, restaurants and Tuesdays primary election, among other things. This raises a few questions.

Why did he shut down these particular activities and allow other businesses, like day care facilities, to stay open? What are the parameters that will make him reopen what he had shut down? Where does he get the power to shut down businesses?

Read this article: Fear Can Spread From Person To Person Faster Than The Coronavirus – But There Are Ways To Slow It Down, at theconversation.com.

 

NEVER LET A CRISIS GO TO WASTE

After 9/11, individuals in government passed legislation that gave government more power over “we the people”. We had our civil liberties taken away when congress passed, and Bush signed, The Patriot Act. The bill had a sunset clause where congress had to vote on and pass the bill again after a certain number of years.

I was in favor of this bill because of the sunset clause. How stupid was I? I have read enough Milton Friedman to know this quote: “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program“.

We know our politicians and bureaucrats are going to make a power grab because of this “crisis”. Every time a “tragedy” happens in our country, a particular article gets a lot of hits on this site. The article is: “You Never Let A Serious Crisis Go To Waste“. It shows the blue print of how politicians and bureaucrats attempt to expand government power after a perceived or real “crisis”.

Tyrannical power grabs by politicians, bureaucrats and other individuals in government are the norm, not the exception. Here is an example: During this coronavirus panic Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen, of Champaign Illinois, has granted herself  the power to ban the sales of guns and alcohol. Another example: Coronavirus patient from Kentucky has police surround his home forcing him to self quarantine. (Will they shoot him if he doesn’t comply?)

The biggest threat from the Coronavirus is the threat to our individual liberty by politicians and bureaucrats using the power of government to “do something” in order to find a “solution” to the “crisis”.

Here are a few excerpts from this article: Coronacrisis And Leviathan, at mises.org.

“…..the growth of government in the twentieth century can largely be explained by patterns of crisis and response. These crises can be real (World Wars I and II, the Great Depression, stagflation) or imagined (inequality, the various isms). In either case new government programs, agencies, and policies are established, purportedly as temporary responses to the perceived emergency. But, as…..history shows us, most of the temporary measures become permanent—either explicitly or in a revised form based on the original.”

“How will leviathan expand—temporarily and then permanently via the ratchet effect—in response to COVID-19? It’s too early to make any definite predictions, but we can make educated guesses based on experience and our knowledge of how governments work.”

Read this article: They Should Have Called It CONTROLavirus, at theburningplatform.com.

 

VACCINES AND OUR IMMUNE SYSTEMS.

Read this article: Researchers Discovered How The Body Kills  The Coronavirus, at bgr.com 

Excerpt from the article:

“The coronavirus pandemic is far from being contained, with countries all over the world reporting more and more cases. It’s up to everyone to step up and do their part……….social distancing and hand washing will help do the trick — so that medical systems around the world aren’t overwhelmed. Doctors need time to treat severe cases while some of their peers attempt to develop vaccines or new drugs that will speed up the healing process. The good news for people who catch the new COVID-19 virus is that most people will recover, and that’s because of the body’s immune system. Researchers in Australia have already figured out how the body kills the SARS-CoV-2 virus, and their early results will help others develop new treatments that could extend immunity, and maybe even eradicate the disease.”

“Australian researchers discovered that the human body fights the infection the same way it would deal with the regular flu. The conclusion is valid for mild-to-moderate cases for the time being, which leads to full recovery. It’s still unclear how long the immunity lasts and there’s no guarantee that once healed, the body will not contract the same COVID-19 disease again.”

Are we in a catch 22 situation with regard to Covid 19? There is currently no vaccine for Covid 19. So in order to build up immunity to this virus you have to get infected and recover. But the spread will not only take some of the lives of older people and those with certain medical conditions, the spread might overwhelm the medical system.

Are you old enough to remember “Chickenpox Parties”? Here is an excerpt from an article: Chickenpox Parties: Benefits, Risks, at medicalnewstoday.com.

“People use pox parties as a way to deliberately infect their children with chickenpox. The idea is that the child gets the illness sooner rather than later and builds up a natural immunity to the virus.”

“During a pox party, parents or caregivers encourage uninfected children to play, eat, and interact with a child who currently has chickenpox. This close contact makes it much more likely that the children will catch chickenpox.”

“Chickenpox parties were popular when the vaccine for chickenpox was not yet available. Nowadays, some people who do not want their child to have the vaccine see pox parties as a natural way for them to acquire immunity to the illness.”

I have a couple of questions. Would it be better for individuals and the medical system to allow people, who are not in the high risk groups, to get infected in order to build up their immunity to the virus since we don’t have a vaccine yet? So instead of shutting everything down for 90% of the population who are not high risk, would there be lower cost to the economy and a lower psychological cost for everybody if the high risk groups were quarantined to protect them and allow others to go about their normal business?

 

CONCLUSION

I have seen two viruses that were politicized in my life time. AIDs and Covid 19. The government didn’t implement any of the measures it has taken to combat Covid 19 even though it would have been easy to contain AIDs. Why? Because the affected group was a politically protected identity group. SARS in 2002, Swine Flu in 2010, Ebola in 2014, and MERS in 2015 were never politicized. And the main stream media and  politicians don’t even mention the tens of thousands of people who die every year from influenza. Why?

I am skeptical of the statements of politicians, government bureaucrats and the main stream media. The main stream media has hyped a lot of things over the last three years that have proven to be wrong. So they have no credibility. Politicians are not credible because of their incentive to get reelected by any means. Government bureaucrats have no credibility because all they want is to keep or grow their power.

That is what makes this tough to figure out. We know there is a virus afflicting the US and the world. But what do we know for certain after that? Read a lot different articles and trust your instincts. I hope these articles help.

 

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This entry was posted on March 19, 2020 at 3:18 pm and is filed under Government and Politics, Miscellaneous. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: Chickenpox Parties, Covid 19 Virus, Immune Systems, Never let a crisis go to waste, Pandemic, Panic, Vaccines

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